Rosa is planning to start bestowing urgently needed grants next year to organisations that support women and girls in the UK. But this is not a case of a rich, altruistic feminist coming to the rescue of charities in the credit crunch; it is the first UK-wide women's fund.

Dinah Cox, Rosa's executive director, admits that the current financial climate is "a complete bugger" and will have a negative effect on all charities that rely on donations. Her first task is to determine how the initial £100,000 that has already been raised will be distributed to four key areas: health, women's safety, the economic divide, and representation. But to achieve the fund's aim of giving grants of £1m-plus a year within the next three to five years, Cox's crucial role is as a fundraiser.

She says: "Many women's organisations are very small, with limited numbers of paid staff. They don't necessarily have the time or the expertise to be running around explaining what they do and trying to get funding themselves."

This is where Rosa - the name is inspired by US civil rights hero Rosa Parks and German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg - is hoping to make a difference. As well as promoting the work of grassroots women's organisations, Rosa will explore sources currently untapped by the sector as a whole. Cox explains: "We are looking to engage the corporate world and individual philanthropists, especially women, who have not been used to giving their money in this way before."

Cox, who began her career working in a hostel for homeless women, collected an OBE last week for community relations, but refuses to take full credit for the distinction. She insists: "You don't succeed in a vacuum. One of the things that is very important to the way I work, and the way Rosa is going to work, is partnership."

Support from other umbrella women's organisations can be counted upon; the Women's Resource Centre and Fawcett were both members of the steering group behind the birth of the fund. On Rosa's website, a stream of statistics emphasises the need for the services it will champion; for example: "Two women are killed every week by their partners, or former partners."

Cox says: "Inequality still makes me angry - but it also makes me determined to do something about it."